Bible Strands
Exodus 32:1
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The people speak to Aaron at the base of the mountain, after Moses has been gone long enough for them to declare him lost.
The words — בֹשֵׁשׁ (vo.Shesh), "he delayed," is the single verb that detonates the scene; the people's perception of delay becomes the warrant for demanding new gods.
The thread — Stephen quotes the demand nearly verbatim in Acts 7:40, and the backdrop of Moses' absence is established in Exodus 24:18 and Deuteronomy 9:9.
Why it lands — The verse exposes a pattern: when the invisible leader vanishes, the community manufactures a visible substitute, and the reader is left to recognize the same move in their own life.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Cross-references
- Acts 7:40 They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’
- Deuteronomy 9:9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
- Exodus 24:18 Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
- Matthew 24:48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’
- 2 Peter 3:4 “Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”
- Deuteronomy 9:11 And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
- Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.
- Exodus 14:11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us into the wilderness to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?
- Deuteronomy 4:15 So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful
- Acts 17:29 Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.